The portentous pilgrim and his mule had spent the night at the doctor’s house. Of the thirty or so households in the village, this was the only one that had room for a guest. There were several reasons for this, one being the considerable size of their farmhouse, and another that Doctor Manouvrier and his wife, Joséphine, much to the surprise of the rest of the village, had no children. The pilgrim set off for Santiago with his mule the following day at dawn, unaware that he had woken up in a country at war. To avoid finding himself at the mercy of his fellow men, who might have proved less forgiving than God, the pilgrim would probably have had to turn back at some point. Or perhaps he fell down one of the many sinkholes in the region. No one ever found out what had become of the pilgrim and his mule, and they certainly never reappeared in the village; but everyone remembered that the day they walked into the village was the day that war broke out.

That first day of August was glorious. The harvest looked set to be exceptional and the crops were plentiful; the landscape glowed with rich colour. But, whether they were working in the fields under the sun, or resting in the shade of the walnut trees, everyone in the village felt the same sense of dread. Tucked away in the craggy hills of the causse, Orcières was thirty kilometres from the nearest police station, but, as in every other village in France, the sound of bells ringing and a poster hastily put up in the main square were enough to tip their world into a new kind of chaos.

By decree of the President of the Republic, the mobilisation of the army and navy has now been ordered. All animals, vehicles and other necessary equipment required to support this effort will also be requisitioned.

Spring 2017

Spring 2017

‘Peace and quiet guaranteed.’ Even the heading above the description on the website was depressing. Franck and Lise had never gone away together for more than ten days at a time. Their holidays were mostly spent by the sea, in houses rented with other friends, more often than not surrounded by plenty of other people. They had never chosen to take themselves off to somewhere so remote just the two of them.

‘I don’t think so. Sorry, Lise.’

‘Look, Franck, I don’t want to fight about this. After everything I’ve been through in the last two years, I’m not fighting about this. It’s not a big deal. I’ll go on my own.’

‘It’s you that I’m worried about, Lise. What happens if you don’t like it after a couple of days? There’s literally nothing there, it’s in the middle of bloody nowhere. I looked it up on Google Maps and there’s nothing nearby, not even a village. Just hills and trees.’